A report by the investigator of an October 2025 house fire on Harpswell Neck confirms that a 78-year-old man found dead by firefighters had died of natural causes before the fire started, and that the fire started because another occupant failed to properly dispose of a lit cigarette.
The Harpswell Anchor filed a request for the report on March 16 under Maine’s Freedom of Access Act. The state responded nearly two months later, on May 8, with a version of the report that redacts individual identities and other details.
In its response to the Anchor, the state said it redacted those details because “there is a reasonable possibility that releasing the information would constitute an invasion of privacy.”
The report by investigator Mark J. Roberts says the fire originated on Oct. 14 in a second-floor bedroom of the 1 1/2-story, Cape-style home at 1501 Harpswell Neck Road.
According to Roberts, the room’s occupant told investigators he had been smoking earlier that night. He fell asleep and woke to flames near an ashtray and upholstered chair he frequently used while smoking.
“He attempted to extinguish the fire by smothering it with a blanket but was unsuccessful as the fire spread rapidly,” the report says.
Roberts ruled out electrical malfunction, appliance failure, heating devices and intentional ignition.
Investigators concluded the fire was caused by the improper disposal or accidental dropping of a cigarette into the chair, igniting combustible materials and spreading through the room and upper level.
“In summary, the investigation determined that the fire originated in the second-floor left bedroom, occupied by (redacted), and was caused by the improper disposal of smoking materials which ignited an upholstered chair,” the report says.
Hugh MacFarlane, 78, was found dead in the fire’s aftermath. A spokesperson for the agency identified him at the time of the fire, but the agency redacted his name from the report.
Roberts confirmed an earlier report that the fire did not cause MacFarlane’s death. “I received a copy of the Medical Examiner’s report, indicating that (MacFarlane) had died of natural causes,” he wrote in the report.
According to the report, MacFarlane had lived at the residence with two sons. It says the fire caused extensive damage to the home’s second floor, especially the left-side bedroom where it began. The roof was damaged above that area, and the left bedroom suffered wall and ceiling collapse, heavy charring and structural damage.
Other second-floor rooms sustained moderate damage as the fire spread from the hallway, while the first floor had minor smoke damage and some water-related ceiling collapse in the living room, but no direct fire damage.
The report lists the burned home’s value at $350,000. It says smoke alarms were present and functional in the home, and could be heard on the 911 recording.
A second fire occurred at the same property in March. Two passersby spotted one of Hugh MacFarlane’s sons, 48-year-old Jeffrey MacFarlane, on fire from the waist up outside a burning vehicle, and they rushed to extinguish the flames.
Fire officials said Jeffrey MacFarlane had been living in his vehicle since the October fire destroyed the home where he lived with his father and brother.
David Mercier, fire chief of Harpswell Neck Fire and Rescue, said at the time that the two rescuers risked their own safety to drag the victim away from his burning vehicle while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.
Jeffrey MacFarlane was taken to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick for treatment of burn injuries, then transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland, according to a spokesperson for the Fire Marshal’s Office.
The office has yet to release an investigator’s report on what caused the March 6 vehicle fire. Spokesperson Shannon Moss has said the fire “is believed to (have been) accidental.”
